The congress approved more flights at Reagan airport despite the warnings

The Congress voted several times to increase the number of daily flights to Reagan National Airport, adding departures that have made life more practical for legislators despite warnings that an increase in air traffic around Washington would increase delays and accidents.

On Tuesday, a regional jet of American Airlines with 64 people on board collided with a Black Hawk Army Black helicopter on the Potomac river near the airport. The authorities said that none of those of one or the other plane would have survived.

The causes of this collision are still not clear. But a look at the recent history of this airport shows that Congress has played a role in the airspace around it.

Reagan is one of the three American airports governed by a “niche” system, in which the Federal Aviation Administration limits the number of daily take -offs and landing to prevent overcrowded airspace. The other two are Laguardia and John F. Kennedy from New York airports.

But Reagan’s limits have been widened several times by the Congress itself, whose members are major users of the airport.

The Congress has added more than 50 new locations to the daily airport calendar since 2000, including 10 that legislators approved last year, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority.